Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Let's Try Something Different

Greetings, readers/viewers. Doing things the old fashioned way today. I switched to simple template to make things load easier and faster.

It's been an interesting year. Results have not been pretty. I've thrown in the towel on MLB this season. I cannot rationalize how I finished down about 25 units. I'm going to tweak the MLB model and generally be more selective next year. I guess creating daily content is not always good for your bottom line.

Results could always be better, but I'm OK with my performance in all the other sports. CFL is going well again this year. I'm looking forward to American football starting up.

In the DFS realm, the buyout of Draftstreet was not a surprise but its shutdown was a shock. It killed my affiliate income, my staking program and my fantasy projections web site. IMO the buyout was a smart move for Draft Kings, the nosebleed players were paying 5% or less rake on DS. Now they must pay at least 6% rake regardless of which site they choose.

So with my summer swoon and my affiliate stream dead, it's time to shake things up.

I enjoy making videos and I hope you enjoy watching them. I've tried to provide information that has value for my viewers. I'd hoped I could turn my expertise (and passion) into some financial stability, but it hasn't worked out that way.

It was disappointing seeing my friend Pauly shut down his Dope Stories podcast. It was a labor of love. It was not compelling subject matter for me, but I was definitely envious of the production quality and traffic it generated.

Web content is changing. Ad revenue is losing its grip as the primary online income stream. Newspaper sites are charging subscriptions. Some of the DFS sites I used to visit are charging to view articles. I've reached the point where I have to monetize the valuable content I create. Otherwise, I have to move on to other things.

So some my future premium videos will be on demand (aka pay to view). I want to make some things abundantly clear going forward:

I AM NOT GOING TOUT. If you follow this blog or my twitter page, I will still post my plays for free.

Some premium video content will remain free. For example, all of my CFL videos will be free through the end of the season.

My swing charts and my analysis is moving to premium on demand. This way you only pay for the days you want the content. My charts will give recommendations for all games in the rotation.

I am launching some premium DFS video content, which will help both novice and seasoned players. I'm also hoping to build a community of DFS players who want to monetize their expertise. More about this in an upcoming post.

Both my premium handicapping and DFS content will have free results follow up videos. This way everyone can see how my models and rosters performed. Complete transparency. (I will also continue to update my public career wagering records.)

So if you enjoy my handicapping analysis or would also like to see it applied to fantasy sports, stay tuned for new videos coming next week.